The ZTE Blade Z Max is a big screen phablet with dual camera sensors and solid performance, available for MetroPCS users at a very reasonable price.

With the current trend of packing as much display into as little space as possible, people who love truly large phones don't have many options. That makes the ZTE Blade Z Max somewhat unique. Available on MetroPCS for $129, it's a genuine 6-inch phablet that's unapologetically big. That provides plenty of space for a sizable battery and dual rear camera sensors. Combined with current Android software and solid overall performance, the Z Max unseats ZTE's Zmax Pro as our Editors' Choice for MetroPCS subscribers.

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Design, Features, and Display

The Z Max is a phone for phablet lovers. At 6.5 by 3.3 by 0.3 inches (HWD) and 6.2 ounces, it's similar to the Zmax Pro (6.5 by 3.3 by 0.4 inches, 6.1 ounces), and significantly larger than the LG Stylo 3 (6.1 by 3.1 by 0.3 inches, 5.3 ounces). You'll probably need to use two hands to navigate your way around the display, and if you wear tight pants the phone may put some strain on the seams of your pocket.

To make the bulky build a bit easier to handle, the back of the phone has a grippy texture to keep it from slipping. You'll also find a rear fingerprint sensor that's easy to reach with your index finger.

A set of clicky volume buttons and a ridged power button sit on the right, while the left is home to a SIM/microSD card slot we tested with a 256GB card. The bottom has a USB-C charging port and a 3.5mm headphone jack. When paired with wired headphones audio is enhanced by Dolby Atmos software, which uses customized sound profiles, but the phone doesn't deliver genuine high-resolution audio.

The face of the Z Max is dominated by a big, bright, 6-inch 1,920-by-1,080 IPS display. We usually like to see a higher resolution at this size, but for the price it's hard to complain. The panel boasts a respectable 367 pixels per inch resolution (ppi), the same as the Zmax Pro. It's much sharper than the 720p Stylo 3 (258ppi), and while you'll notice some pixels on close inspection, for the most part text and graphics are clear. Viewing angles are solid and colors are accurate. In direct sunlight things can wash out a bit, but remain visible if you crank up the brightness.

Network Performance and Connectivity

The Z Max is available on MetroPCS, which uses T-Mobile's network. It supports LTE bands 2/4/5/12/66, which is similar to the Zmax Pro, aside from band 66 which boosts downlink bandwidth for better download speeds in congested areas. During testing in midtown Manhattan it registered great network connectivity, with a top speed of 20.6Mbps down and 22Mbps up.

Other connectivity protocols are the standard fare. Wi-Fi is supported on the 2.4GHz band only, so you won't be able to connect to a home router on the 5GHz frequency, and the phone uses Bluetooth 4.2. There's no NFC, which is a fairly common omission at this price point.

Call quality isn't the best. Transmissions are harsh and robotic, and noise cancellation struggles to consistently blot out all background sound. This is despite both VoLTE and HD Voice being supported. Earpiece volume is fairly loud, but the back-facing speaker is easy to muffle with your hand.

Processor and Battery

The Z Max is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 435 processor clocked at 1.4GHz. It's a common chipset for midrange phones, and benchmarks similarly to other devices we've tested, scoring 46,814 on AnTuTu (a measure of overall system performance). That's about on par with the Snapdragon 617 in the Zmax Pro (47,007), and it outperforms the Stylo 3 (42,131), which has the same chipset, likely due to ZTE's lighter UI layer.

The phone has 2GB of RAM, so it's capable of a good amount of multitasking and can handle running most apps short of high-end games. That said, sometimes you'll encounter the occasional lag, though things never froze up on me completely.

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Battery life is great. The Z Max packs a large 4,080mAh battery that was good for 7 hours and 6 minutes in our rundown test, in which we stream video over LTE at maximum brightness. That surpasses the Zmax Pro (6 hours), and should easily get you through a full day of normal usage and then some. Fast charging is supported with the included adapter.

Camera

A dual-camera setup is becoming common among flagship phones, but aside from the Huawei Honor 6X, it's rare to find on more affordable options. In the case of the Z Max, you have a 16-megapixel primary sensor paired with a supplementary 2-megapixel sensor. This combination allows for some cool effects, like Bokeh mode, which lets you focus in on a foreground object while blurring the background. Another mode called Color Catcher makes everything black and white, but highlights a single color. As you can see in the image below, it results in some interesting, Instagram-worthy shots.

That said, neither are perfect. Certain bokeh shots look jagged and unnatural, where it seems like the foreground object was carved out of the blurry background. Color Catcher also has some oddities where certain colors aren't rendered in black and white as they should be, or are only partially colored.

Aside from these features, the Z Max is your standard midrange shooter. Outdoors and in good lighting, it's capable of capturing clear shots. Areas of shadow result in a certain amount of graininess when it comes to fine details, like the brickwork facades of buildings or the individual branches of plants. Indoors and in lower light, image quality degrades. You'll get more blurry shots and more noise.

There are manual controls that let you adjust ISO, exposure, and other elements to improve shots, and those help to some degree, but don't expect to crank out flagship-quality photos. Video recording is the standard 1080p at 30fps, but overall quality is good and generally stable provided your hand doesn't shake too much. An 8-megapixel front-facing camera has a habit of looking washed out, but it serves well enough for selfies and video chats.

Software

Like most new phones now, the Z Max runs Android 7.1 Nougat with some minor visual changes. Mostly, it sticks to a familiar-looking rendition of Android without much in the way of extra features. There are seven preinstalled MetroPCS apps, along with Facebook. None can be uninstalled, but it's still not much bloatware relative to other phones we've seen. Out of 32GB of internal storage, 21GB is available out of the box, and you can always add a microSD card if you need to.

Conclusions

Although it certainly isn't competition for higher-end handsets, the ZTE Blade Z Max is a midrange powerhouse in the MetroPCS lineup. For $129 you get a big screen and battery, along with capable performance and a dual-camera setup that provides capabilities usually only found in more expensive devices. It's a great deal for the price, and a worthy successor to the ZMax Pro. If you're looking for something smaller, the Moto E4 is available for the same price and offers a similar level of performance. But for everyone who loves a big screen, the Blade Z Max is our Editors' Choice.

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About the Author

Ajay Kumar is PCMag's Analyst obsessed with all things mobile. Ajay reviews phones, tablets, accessories, and just about any other gadget that can be carried around with you. In his spare time he games on the rig he built himself, collects Nintendo amiibos, and tries his hand at publishing a novel. Follow Ajay on Twitter @Ajay_H_Kumar.

ZTE Blade Z Max

ZTE Blade Z Max

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